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The Battle of Opis, fought in September 539 BC, was the second and final engagement of the war between Cyrus the Great of Persia and Nabonidus of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. It followed an earlier battle on the Tigris said to have taken place some time in February 539 BC. The battle resulted in a decisive defeat for the Babylonians and led, a few weeks later, to Cyrus's unopposed entry into the city of Babylon and his proclamation as king of Babylonia.

The battle is recorded in the Nabonidus Chronicle, one of a series of clay tablets collectively known as the Babylonian Chronicles that record the history of ancient Babylonia. The tablet records that "in the month Tashritu Cyrus did battle at Opis on the Tigris among the army of Akkad; the people of Akkad retreated." According to widely accepted translations by Grayson (1975) and Glassner (2004), in the aftermath of the battle Cyrus "carried off the plunder (and) slaughtered the people." (Josef Wiesehöfer renders this passage as "He had the booty taken away the people killed." William G. Lambert alternatively translates this portion as " defeated the soldiers ", suggesting that it refers to a Persian engagement with Nabonidus' troops rather than an attack on the citizens of Opis.) The tablet goes on to state: "On the fourteenth day Sippar was captured without battle. Nabonidus fled. On the sixteenth day Ug/Gubaru, governor of Gutium, and the army of Cyrus without a battle entered Babylon. Afterwards, after Nabonidus returned, he was captured in Babylon."

The site of the battle was near the city of Opis on the river Tigris, located about 50 miles (80 km) from modern Baghdad. The city is thought to have been "the usual and the best place to cross the river", which presumably was shallower or narrower there than elsewhere. By taking Opis, Cyrus broke through the "Median Wall" defensive line north of Babylon and opened the road to the capital.

Historians are divided about whether the description of a massacre and looting in the accepted translation of the Nabonidus Chronicle refers to an attack on the city of Opis or whether it refers to the fate of the main camp of Nabonidus' broken army, assuming that the Persians captured it intact. The battle and massacre are not mentioned from the later Cyrus cylinder inscription, which portrays Cyrus as liberating Babylon peacefully and with the consent of its people. Simon J. Sherwin comments that the battle at Opis "gives the lie to the idea of Cyrus as a benign liberator" and suggests that the aim of the massacre was "to terrorize the population" to intimidate Sippar and Babylon into surrendering without resistance. Maria Brosius similarly interprets Cyrus's actions as punitive, "mak an example of a city trying to resist the Persian army". Amélie Kuhrt comments that the reference to an apparent massacre and looting suggests that the battle was "probably a hard-won victory."

Although later propaganda such as the Cyrus cylinder inscription portrayed his conquest of Babylonia as essentially peaceful, the battle demonstrates that the existing Babylonian regime actively resisted the Persian invasion of Mesopotamia. It was perhaps a sign of the divisions in the regime - Nabonidus was reputedly highly unpopular among the Babylonian elite - that some Babylonian subjects appear to have welcomed the Persians. It is, however, unclear how widely the Persians were supported within Babylonia, as accounts of the invasion and Nabonidus's rule are coloured by Cyrus's subsequent propaganda. The account related in the Chronicle indicates that after the battle Cyrus halted at Opis, sending his general Gubaru with an army to invest Babylon. The king did not travel to the capital until well after it had been secured, some three weeks after the battle. Sherwin draws attention to Cyrus's non-participation in the taking of Babylon, suggesting that it demonstrates that Cyrus "was not expecting an easy victory".

References

1. ^ William G. Lambert describes the translation of A.K. Grayson as the "accepted translation". Lambert, "Notes Brèves 14 - Cyrus defeat of Nabonidus", Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires no. 1, 2007 (March)
2. Grayson, A.K. Babylonian Historical-Literary Texts. University of Toronto Press, 1975. ISBN 0802053157
3. Glassner, Jean-Jacques. Mesopotamian Chronicles. Society of Biblical Literature, 2004. ISBN 1589830903
4. Amélie Kuhrt also gives a similar translation in The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources of the Achaemenid Period, p. 51. Routledge, 2007. ISBN 0415436281
5. Wiesehöfer, Josef (trans. Azodi, Azizeh). Ancient Persia: From 550 BC to 650 AD, p. 50. I.B.Tauris, 2001. ISBN 1860646751
6. Kuhrt, Amélie. "Cyrus the Great of Persia: Images and Realities". Representations of Political Power: Case Histories from Times of Change and Dissolving Order in the Ancient Near East, p. 185. Marlies Heinz, Marian H. Feldman (eds). Eisenbrauns, 2007. ISBN 157506135X
7. Oppenheim, A.L. "The Babylonian Evidence of Achaemenian Rule in Mesopotamia", in The Cambridge History of Iran vol. 2, p. 539. Ilya Gershevitch (ed). Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0521200911
8. ^ T. Cutler Young, Jr., "The rise of the Persians to imperial power under Cyrus the Great", in The Cambridge Ancient History vol. 4, p. 39. John Boardman (ed). Cambridge University Press, 1982. ISBN 0521228042
9. ^ Amélie Kuhrt, ibid pp. 174-175.
10. ^ Sherwin, Simon J. "Old Testament monotheism and Zoroastrian influence" The God of Israel: Studies of an Inimitable Deity, p. 123. Robert P. Gordon (ed). Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 0521873657
11. Brosius, Maria. The Persians, p. 11. Routledge, 2006. ISBN 0415320909.
12. Kurht, Amélie. "Usurpation, conquest and ceremonial: from Babylon to Persia." Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies, p. 48. David Cannadine, Simon Price (eds). Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN 0521428912
13. McIntosh, Jane. Ancient Mesopotamia, pp. 113-14. ABC-CLIO, 2005. ISBN 1576079651

• Battles of Cyrus the Great
• 539 BC
• 6th century BC conflicts
• Battles involving the Achaemenid Empire